Downtown Pensacola woke up Wednesday to a missing left-turn lane and seven new parking spaces on East Garden Street.

The Florida Department of Transportation has jurisdiction over the street, which is also U.S. 98, and the department authorized a crew to remove the left lane on the eastbound side of Garden Street that turns onto North Jefferson Street and add seven parallel parking spaces overnight Tuesday.

FDOT spokeswoman Tanya Branton told the News Journal on Wednesday the city of Pensacola requested the change to create additional parking spaces.

She said the agency determined the request would not impact the capacity of the road so the work was completed by an FDOT crew.

What was a left-turn lane is now seven parking spaces on East Garden Street.(Photo: Jim Little / jwlittle@pnj.com)

Vernon Stewart, spokesman for the city of Pensacola, told the News Journal it was possible the city asked for the parking spaces, but he didn't know the details of that request.

Stewart said FDOT determined the left turn lane was no longer needed.

"The main reason (the change was made) was that signal was no longer necessary," Stewart said.

Curt Morse, executive director of the Downtown Improvement Board, which manages parking in downtown Pensacola, told the News Journal he was surprised to find out the spaces were added.

He said the request did not come from the DIB.

Morse said the DIB would turn the spaces into two-hour free parking and the signs would go up soon.